Most people remember AEW All Out 2022 for what transpired after the show, not for what happened in the ring. In his infamous press conference, CM Punk voiced his displeasure with Hangman Page, Colt Cabana, Matt & Nick Jackson, Kenny Omega, and others.
Ace Steel, the Elite (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks), and CM Punk got into a fight over the remarks, and Punk and the Elite were suspended. Furthermore, Steel was dismissed from the company.
Britt Baker became the latest person to give her thoughts on the incident. The first woman hired by AEW discussed the All Out scrum and its aftermath during an interview with Brandon Walker on Rasslin.
“Speaking solely on what I watched because that’s all I saw and the scrum and what I heard. As some who loves AEW more than anything in the world and has so much pride and at a time where it felt like something special. Some of the biggest names in professional wrestling were all fighting for the same team. Especially after a huge pay-per-view, that pay-per-view was amazing, one of the biggest houses we’ve ever had. That scrum was heartbreaking. It was embarrassing and it was disappointing because, it felt like, in this moment in time, it felt like a disaster.
You never want that happen and it happens every day. There are days I stub my toe in the dental office, ‘oh my God, this is a disaster.’ You never want that feeling. That was a time in AEW where I was like, ‘this sucks.’ Just me speaking personally, I think the scrums are cool because it’s after a pay-per-view and you get to speak to these wrestlers and there is a lot of emotion and they get to talk to you about what’s going on in the ring, their feelings, their storylines. It humanizes these larger than life wrestlers. That time needs to be used proactively and responsibly.
If I sit here and tell you nothing but everyone I hate, everything I’m mad at, or all the Twitter lies about me and debunk them, that’s not proactive. It would be selfish of me to use your time and the world’s time like that. I would rather put over the pay-per-view and all the awesome stuff in AEW. Is that other stuff there? Of course, are there people I don’t like? Of course. Are there things I don’t like? Of course. I’m still a soldier for AEW, I’m on the front lines, and I’m going to put it over.”
Britt Baker
“Probably everybody involved was somehow wrongly characterized. We weren’t there, I wasn’t there, you weren’t there. That will be that. What I can say is that AEW is still a special place and maybe that was a little wrinkle in the fabric, but we ironed it out and we’re still a super strong company and family. People don’t realize, without the Bucks being here, there is no AEW. The first person Tony Khan called was Matt Jackson. Then he got Nick Jackson, he got Kenny and Hangman, and eventually Cody (Rhodes).
If you can watch AEW today and say, ‘I love AEW, but I want the Young Bucks out of there,’ you’re completely losing the whole point. The Young Bucks are literally the foundation before anybdoy else came in, and Kenny, of course. It’s sad to see a lot of people, and I’m a little biased because I feel us originals are a unified family. I always want what’s best for business, but I think with all people involved, you have to take everyone’s mental health and their emotions into play. I hope people take that into consideration before they jump to Twitter and jump to conclusions and have to vocalize their opinion on everything in the world.
When you’re just reading these rumors about you, that people swear are true, but they’re not true, it breathes venom inside you where all you want to do is burn it all down. The best and hardest thing you can do is take the high road. Very rarely do you regret taking the high road. It sucks, there are a lot of times I don’t want to do it and times where I haven’t, but it’s my advice for everybody in the business. Please, take the high road.”
The whole division, in any aspect, I hate. The divide makes teams, there is this side and that side. We’re all on the same team. When you have teams within a team, it gets messy and muddy. I think, everybody in this company is a huge benefit for AEW. I think everybody involved in that is still a huge benefit for AEW and they all truly love professional wrestling and there is a lot of passion involved there. Everybody in AEW can probably say that they hate what happened, they wish it hadn’t happened or happened differently, but you can’t take that back.
You can’t go back in time, so let’s move forward and be smart about things. Don’t just spit out every random, stupid lie, rumor that you’ve heard. Really be smart now and try to prevent this shit from happening again. I feel bad for everybody involved and I’m happy professional wrestling has moved on from that. I felt like, for a second, all eyes were on us for the wrong reasons. They say ‘no press is bad press,’ whatever that stupid phrase is, I hate it. I’m so proud at how resilient AEW is.
We are still a young company and we have growing pains. Compared to what other wrestling companies have grown through, some might say it’s super minor, who cares. For us, we want to smooth sailing and we want to be very resilient. I’m really happy and proud of this company I work for. I’m super thankful for (Chris) Jericho, Cody, (Jon) Moxley, Kenny, Matt, and Nick for starting this awesome thing. When we first started AEW, Kenny, Matt and Nick wore shirts that said ‘Change the World,’ I think sometimes people need to remember that. It was truly their goal, to change the world, to change professional wrestling, and make it exciting and give people something to really look forward to. Those guys have helped so many people in the world of professional wrestling and we won’t even hear a fraction of it, but they have really helped this sport in a way that a lot of people won’t understand and I’m very thankful for them, and I know a lot of this locker room is too.”
Britt Baker
While Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks returned to AEW television, CM Punk has not been seen since then. We will have to wait and see if he decides to return to AEW following rehabbing from his injury suffered at the All Out event.
H/T to Fightful
Follow Corey at @CoreyBrennanBS on Twitter
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